Book Review: Yoga and Body Image

Paper Cuts & Bandaids

Yoga and Body Image is like reading a diary — by 25 people. Authors Melanie Klein and Anna Guest-Jelley combine their own stories with other men and women in the yoga/health industry to deliver us a moving collection of essays. This book is a timely submission to our yoga bookshelves. As yoga increases in popularity so too has the media pressures and the images of “what yoga looks like.”

A challenging, but rewarding read, this book will give you much to think about. I am still chewing on it. It has been harder than usual to put my thoughts and words together. Why? It’s just a book isn’t it? No…

Lasting Effects:

Yoga and Body Image has left me with some paper cuts, but also a box of bandages to fix myself up. Moral of the story: anyone can do yoga. The journey is long and trying and we need to hear these positive messages repeatedly: there is no right body/person/type/shape when it comes to yoga.

Yoga is everyone’s.

This book has left me feeling more important, like I do have something to say. I’m shrinking back a little less. I am more mindful. My daily yoga practice is re-energized. The future looks less fuzzy. The sign of a good read is when it transforms you, gives you a paper cut or two — Yoga and Body Image is a great read.

Nutshell:

Yoga and Body Image has something to offer any yogi at any level of experience. The format of essays written by different writers with very different backgrounds is genius. As a result, this book is perfectly equipped to appeal to and assist anyone who picks it up. If you don’t relate to one writer’s story, you will relate very strongly to another.

This book offers many recommendations to yoga teachers, such as — words and phrases that could be harmful, ways to approach assisting students, better ways to set-up a yoga classroom, and to consider teaching poses from most supported version to least. You don’t want to scare new students off. The goal is to make yoga more accessible.

The authors encourage us to continue the conversation about yoga and body image.